OlympicMtnBoy

UPS says mine is scheduled for delivery tomorrow. I had to send him an email and bug him though. I think he got swamped with orders recently, mixed blessing for him, but I think it's better in the long run that he stay in business and keep making good gear. Hopefully he's getting things sorted out and your pack got shipped out around the same time as mine. I'm looking forward to loading mine up this weekend. :-)

Got any beaks in there?

Yeah, I think the criteria would have to be weight=0. I could carry a stove or a 1 lb sleeping bag to keep me warm in an emergency, but frequently I don't even do that, preferring the light=fast=home and warm sooner method. And as Squid said, what am I gonna do with power up there anyways, unless I had one of those silly battery powered heater jackets and my battery was dead. How about looking at a really light system for base camp use. I've had good luck with solar power to charge batteries for the mp3 player , speakers, cameras, and flashlights. If I'm packing/skiing/mule training in for the long haul I might consider an extra pound or two for power. I still won't carry it on the climb.

Hey Mike, what am I? The partner who is not to be named? You ashamed to be out doing alpine sport with me. Hehehe, it was a fun half day though. No prob runout, we saw you coming down and figured it was a good enough time to turn around. We were far enough ahead of you to miss your rocks (fortunately no one was under US). It sounds like the gully had dried out significantly in the few hours between when you did it and we did it. I climbed the wet 5.9 face on the bolt line and it wasn't really too bad by then either, just a little tricky with cold wet fingers. Next time I think I'm gonna climb the first 6 pitches of 5.easy with a pack and bivy gear, then make the rest a more liesurely second day. Of course there are probably better climbs, but the alpine sport aspect was fun up to there. I took a couple pics but with my film camera they might not see the light of day for a while.

Wasn't up on Ellinor, but went in to Boulder Shelter and climbed Coudy Pk. via the Dungeness Trail (TR coming soon). We didn't hit much snow at all till after 3000'. With all the warm weather last week it's been melting fast. There was afternoon postholing above 4K, which made nice cramponing early in the morning. I'd image it's similar around Ellinor/Washington right now.

Awesome Graham, I've been sitting on my ass waiting for a new pack deal since a heavy pack in Feb convinced me the Osprey Flyte I bought in 1996 was getting worn out. I knew my good deal would come along, and I'm glad it will helpout CC.com a bit too. Check your email. :-)

OMG, "Urban Climber" Timmy O'Niel climbing the Uptown Theater in Chicago(?) to look for a safe. Check out Urban Explorers on the Discover channel. How do I get "Urban Climber" as a job title (not that O'Niel needs anything in front of the Climber part).

Climb: Index cragging-Iron Horse and Arachnid Arch solo aid Date of Climb: 4/19/2006 Trip Report: Just a mini TR, but I'm bored and working from home. Index was relatively hopping yesterday with the nice sunny weather. I decided it would be a lot more fun to take the day off and play than stay inside and work. I've been meaning to do some aid, but I was too lazy to find a partner and didn't want to spend half the day belaying anyways. I wanted to climb instead! Thus I figured it was about time to start my solo aid career and figure out how to use that clunky gri-gri for something other than it's silly intended use. I decided Iron Horse looked like a nice line since my bag was heavy with way more gear than anyone but a solo gumby would want to carry. I lassoed a big boulder at the base for my anchor since the flake at the base looked ok, but not ideal and I wanted a good anchor figuring I'd be worried about other stuff. The pitch was really pretty straight forward once I got off the ground and got into a pattern feeding the gri-gri and working with my backup knots. The only slightly tricky move was the transition between crack systems below and left of the first anchors on Sagitarius. I found a decent ballnut placement to get me up. I went up the anchors just above the "ringing flake", rapped, and then ascended to clean. The whole pitch went well with my only minor snafu being shoving my ascender up again the anchor on accident with a little fiddling to get it loose. After I got down I had a nice hot lunch to field test my pepsi can alcohol stove. My tasty bites and cup of tea made it all seem quite luxurius, even if it was sunny and 60. After lunch I figured I ought to do something else since I had all that gear, but I was too lazy to move far so I did the Arachnid Arch variation of Sagitarius to practice a little traversing under a roof. The start was a little grunty in the flaring bit (there's a 0.5 camalot fixed there by someone if anyone wants to try and rescue it, I couldn't), and the crack inder the roof ate my small cams like candy. I found a super bomber hook a couple moves below the first anchor that you could hang yo mama from too. I stopped at the first anchor due to time and a lack of motivation to grunt in the chimney on solo lead. Cleaning the traverse was "good practice" too, at least I was smart enough not to back clean. All in all a fun day in the sun, and two good easy (C2?) routes to practice solo without too much commitment. I felt pretty good on my first solo leads, maybe I'll do Green Dragon or something next. Gear Notes: Aid rack, used offset aliens and ballnutz, but didn't really need them, plenty of room for standard gear. One hook move (cliffhanger) on the arch. Approach Notes: Hike five mins from the parking lot and you've probably already passed it.

It better not be mine! I'm still lookin for it!

Pirate Sam the Hatless??? What? What's a pirate to do without a hat? ARRGHHHHH, UV LOST ME HAT YE SCURVY RATS, NOW WHAT WHILL AYE DRINK ME GROG FROM???

I was there yesterday for this thing and Andy (iluka) seemed like a good guy. I guess I shouldn't discuss the specifics here, but give him a call if you're interested. It's pretty straight forward. :-)

Umm, anyone seen my car? I'm sure it was parked in my parking lot last night and uh, it ain't there now. There is a nice gash in the wall where someone deparked improperly, but I can't drive a busted wall. I never really thought anybody'd want the thing with the mileage and dents and the much nicer cars in our lot. It's tan, license 337-NZV and was most recently parked near 39th and Greenwood in Freemont (Seattle). Yesterday I even pulled the front left fender off an pounded the dent out, so look for a very slight mismatch and evidence of former dents. Fortunately no gear inside, but no insurance on repairing/replaceing it either (it's an 87 with 207k miles for godsakes!). if you see it, extra if you rough up the guy/gal who took it too! F*cker. P.S. Car responds to the name "Rumbly" and is generally friendly and aparently not hard to get into, even when locked.

Doh, found it. Had to look for Olympic Mountains: A Climbing Guide.

What? Why can't I find it on Amazon? They only list the old one when I look. Post a URL for me. :-)

Awesome, I'm jealous. I almost went down there when I was living in Russia, but it was too much of a PITA to get a Ukranian visa for an American living in Russia (but not in Moscow).

Hot damn! Just makes me wanna get out there and start the season. Maybe with some nice C1 in granite though when it warms up and dries out up here. Great TR.

Looks like crazy Russian action hero training to me.

It didn't look particularly "in" to me when we were up there on 2/17. Check the colchuck/stuart range conditions thread for more of the pics VW took. The exit from the second couloir looked barren of ice from what we could tell. I think it will actually take some warm days instead of more cold to melt that snow and snice a bit and turn it into good ice. :-)

Yeah Chad, thanks for driving up this way so we could at least get out and camp! It was freakin cold up there but still a great time. Goatboy: We were in boots all the way up and down. It wasn't bad as long as you stayed on the 12 inch wide packed part. We only postholed a few times, not enough to justify the floatation for most of it. When we go back though I'm taking my kiddie sled and skis just for the road section, be a lot more fun (and I'm too poor of a skier for going all the way from the lake). :-)

Anybody wanna head from Seattle to Vantage or Index this sunday? I might be open for monday as an alternate as well. I NEED to hit some real rock. Right now I probably lead 5.9, follow 10+, have gear and car. PM me with contact info.

Hmm, now I'm noticing it's the 8th, not the 7th, nevermind then, unless someone wants to meet me for Thursday.

I might be headed up to Alpental tomorrow to check out Stellar Falls, was thinking of heading up there in the morning to get the most of my day pass. I'm guessing you were thinking backcountry, but if you wanna ride the lift with me? Oh and I'm a shitty skier and you'll laugh at my skis. Let me know. :-)

Check your PMs.

Anyone got a weekday off and want to hit Vantage for some trad or sport since the sun might be out? I'm up for other ideas too, my schedule is pretty flexible this week or this weekend. Anyone??

You guys going out this monday (tomorrow)? I'd be up for it if you need another person. - OMB